Family`s Vigil Wife Calls Captive Dea Informer

October 5, 1985|By Peter Aronson and Stephen Wissink, Staff Writers

Steven Donahue, a part-time resident of Broward County, is being held captive in Lebanon because he was working undercover for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and his captors -- families involved in drug trafficking -- feared he would inform on them, his wife said Friday.

Johanna Donahue said at her parents` home in Hollywood that her husband used to smuggle hashish from Lebanon to the United States and was arrested by the DEA in Newark, N.J., in December 1982.

He plea bargained, she said, and began working as an informant for the DEA in May 1983.

``I would say that`s why he`s being held,`` Johanna Donahue said. ``He was informing to the DEA about these families in Lebanon who are involved with drugs.``

Con Dougherty, public affairs officer for the DEA in Washington, said, ``We really have no comment. Most of what we`ve heard we`ve gotten third-hand from the media. I cannot say we do or do not have knowledge of this man.``

The State Department said Friday that Donahue was being held in Lebanon, although he does not appear to be a political hostage.

`` . . . Our understanding is that this is not a political situation and is in no way comparable to that of the other American hostages,`` department spokesman Bernard Kalb said, referring to six other Americans being held hostage in Beirut.

State Department officials refused to release specifics about Donahue`s background, saying the U.S. Privacy Act prohibited them from doing so. The act prevents the release of information in government files about American citizens abroad without the consent of the citizen, said James Callahan, another department spokesman.

The report that Donahue was being held captive came Thursday from British author Anthony Haden-Guest, with whom Donahue had been working on a book about drug trafficking in Lebanon.

Haden-Guest, 46, a contributing editor of New York magazine, said from a friend`s home in London Friday that he and Donahue had an agreement that Haden-Guest would do the writing while Donahue, who speaks Arabic, would provide him with information and contacts.

He said these contacts were developed by Donahue through his extensive trafficking of hashish between Lebanon and the United States.

``He is former drug dealer. That`s no secret. He is a former drug dealer,`` said Haden-Guest.

He said fear by Lebanese families involved in drug trafficking that Donahue would inform on them caused them to hold Donahue captive intermittently since January.

``There`s a lot of history,`` Haden-Guest said. ``A family which says they are owed by (Donahue) $2 million for an old drug deal (have held him hostage). The family that holds him now is resentful he`s working for drug enforcement people.``

Haden-Guest was held captive as well until Wednesday, and he said he`s surprised he and Donahue were not killed.

``I`m still baffled. I`m still baffled. He went into Lebanon to do a lot of damage to a lot of people, and I don`t understand why they didn`t kill us.``

Johanna Donahue, who accompanied her husband to Lebanon in December, said she was not aware specifically what her husband was doing other than working for the DEA and that the book project was serving as his cover.

``His purpose there was to assist the DEA in a sting operation, which was of their design. I`m really not familiar with it. I accompanied him there because I was (certain of) safety. I didn`t think it was dangerous. I know it sounds stupid. I thought we had a lot of protection. Seems when things went wrong everyone turned their back and went the other way.``

Johanna Donahue told the State Department in August, when she returned from Lebanon, that her husband was being held against his will there, department officials said. Callahan, the State Department spokesman, said the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon has been investigating the report, but so far has obtained little information.

``The embassy has been in contact with a variety of organizations and individuals in an effort to ascertain his whereabouts and status,`` said Mike Austrian, another State Department spokesman.``

Johanna Donahue said she has been in frequent telephone contact with her husband and spoke with him Tuesday.

``He said he hopes to come home, that (he and Haden-Guest) were being held. He said that he was all right and that he was hoping to be coming home soon.``

Haden-Guest said Donahue was being held in ``pleasant conditions.``

``He has enough to drink, enough to eat. They just won`t let him leave Lebanon. Lebanon is country where there are powerful people and if they don`t want you to leave, you don`t leave.``

Haden-Guest`s literary agent in New York City, Julian Bach, said he was contacted by Donahue about 1 1/2 years ago about a possible book dealing with ``narc-politics in Lebanon and their various implications.``

Bach said he hooked Donahue up with Haden-Guest, a longtime client who wrote the 1982 best-selling non-fiction book, Bad Dreams, about the killing of a model by a horse trainer.

Bach said he, Haden-Guest and Donahue have a contract to do the book. He said he was waiting for an outline from Haden-Guest and that once that was received, he expected ``sizeable interest`` from publishers.

Johanna Donahue said prior to Thursday the State Department had asked her not to make public that her husband was being held.

She said it was difficult on her and her family to discuss her husband`s involvement in drug trafficking, but said it was for the best.

``I`m doing this because I feel this will help my husband,`` she said.